What is most important to be a good leader?

Is it their management skills? Is it their management techniques? Is it their competencies? Is it their tactics? Do any of these things make you feel any better about your leaders? Are any of these things really impacting your view of your leadership? You know where most people focus right? But is that the right place to be focusing?

a characteristic, especially one that assists in the identification of a species.

VERB

archaic

inscribe; engrave.

describe; characterize:

“you have well charactered him”

ORIGIN

Middle English: from Old French caractere, via Latin from Greek kharaktēr ‘a stamping tool.’ From the early sense ‘distinctive mark’ arose ‘token, feature, or trait’ (early 16th cent.), and from this ‘a description, esp. of a person’s qualities,’ giving rise to ‘distinguishing qualities.’

RELATED FORMS

People who know what to do but don’t do it get you and us into difficult positions. People who know what’s bad but still do it make things challenging. People who know what needs to be done but don’t do them leave openings, questions, concerns, and worry on the table.

So where are you at today? What is your role? Do you realize people are watching you? Do you realize that there are people who are following you? Do you realize the calling on your life? Do you know what is right? Do you know what you have to do? Do you do it?

Let’s jump into the readings from today’s devotional (day 1) and then circle back with the specifics called out by today’s devotional…

Today’s reading begins here…

6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

–from Romans 2

So how are you living out life? What works are you producing? There are rewards when we do things His way! When people ask me how I do it, I usually answer, “I do all that I can do, and leave the rest up to Him”. Today’s reading speaks to some key characteristics: patience vs self-seeking. Patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality will receive eternal life from God! Self-seeking and disobedience to the truth as well as being unrighteous, He will allow them to suffer wrath and fury.

So let’s take a stop here to meditate on where we are at, how we work, and offer up in humility to God an ask for help, an ask for wisdom, and a pleading for forgiveness.

Today’s reading continues with the following…

17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

–from James 3

God’s wisdom of which we just asked is awesome. It’s pure! It’s peace! There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! So it gives instruction in a way that builds up rather than what the devil’s lies try to put into your head with tearing you down via condemning you. God’s wisdom is gentle and provides reason! God’s wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits! God’s impartial and sincere! His character is solid as a rock!

He gives us an example to model our lives and our leadership after!

Consider Jesus who humbled himself to come to the earth, born in humble situation of a manger, lead by example, and then gave completely of himself to the point of death on the cross to provide for a way that we are able to now receive and be reconciled back to God even though He was sinless, He took the penalty for all of our sins (the ones from our past and the ones we haven’t done yet, once for all). He became sin even though He did nothing wrong, leading humbly as a servant that those who will follow Him will reap the benefits and the reward of eternity with Him in heaven! Let’s not be self-centered, but rather be putting the focus on God! Allowing the world to learn that the answer is Jesus!

Today’s reading finishes with this …(expanded to include the start of the sentence)

23Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

–from Jeremiah 9

So don’t be boastful about you and all that you have done, but rather share the hope that is within you because of God! We can boast about how God knows what we need even before we ask! We can boast about how we can put all of our hope and trust in Him! We can boast about God’s character and how He loves, how He is just, how He is righteous! Let’s strive to know God more! Let’s strive to build our relationship with Jesus! We don’t want to be people who know about Him, we want to be people who know Him! We don’t want to end up like the people we read about where we find out that He knows the people we know, but He doesn’t know us because we weren’t in relationship with Him!

22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

–from Matthew 7

We need to live like we know Him! We need to live beyond knowing about Jesus, we need to live knowing Jesus!

Build Your House on the Rock

46“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?47Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:48he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.49But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

“The Leadership Problem”

Would you agree that a person could be very knowledgeable yet very unchanged by that knowledge? All of us, for that matter, know certain things that ought to be done but fail to do them, don’t we?

We know what food is good for us, yet we choose to ignore that knowledge. We know overspending is bad and will lead to serious consequences, yet we overextend ourselves financially. We know that in order to become “great” we need to humble ourselves and serve, yet too often we use our position and power to lord it over others and to manipulate them in order to satisfy our egos.

Knowledge is actually useless…unless we make a conscious decision to apply it. In Philippians 4:9 we are told: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things…”

There are over 20,000 leadership development resources available, yet despite the growing magnitude, they have failed to produce good leaders. According to the latest research by Barna Group, 90% of Americans believe the nation is facing a crisis of leadership, 61% say they work for a bad boss and 33% say that poor leadership at work is the most stressful part of their workday. So what’s the problem?

You see most leadership development focus on management techniques, building competencies, skills and tactics, but they fail to focus on the most important part of leadership—the leader and his or her character, integrity and emotional intelligence.

Sadly, there is a perception among those in positional leadership that focusing on the character of a leader rather than skills and tactics is “soft” and not practical enough; hence most leaders continue to bypass it. The results are clear: continued struggles, dissatisfied employees, frustrated leaders and chaotic and poor-performing teams and organizations.

In reality, every tactical problem, even though on the surface it seems to need a tactical answer, is ultimately rooted in and can be traced to weak character, leading out of fear, leading out of pride, not being able to distinguish right from wrong, having misplaced business priorities or having misplaced life priorities. Only when we stay close to God’s word and practice it on daily basis, we’ll have a positive, lasting impact on those around us. So let’s be doers of the word and not hearers only, as James 1:22 admonishes us.

Forgiveness

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. --from Matthew 6

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Annual Reports

Interested in what was posted prior to WordPress? You can find them here:
http://x.co/2005ToEter when I started blogging back in 2005, prior to the move from WL Spaces to WP. (download to be able to view the page rather than the source behind it)

Keys to Growth

FEAR NOT, JUST BELIEVE
Disciple them in the ways of the LORD.
- Embrace others where they are.
- Outreach to others as they are.
- Meditate on the Word of God daily.

Memory Verse: Proverbs 16:6
By mercy and love, truth and fidelity [to God and man--not by sacrificial offerings], iniquity is purged out of the heart, and by the reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord men depart from and avoid evil.

The Roman Road

I. Romans 3:10
As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

II. Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

III. Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

IV. Romans 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

V. Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.

VI. Romans 10:9-11
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

VII. Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

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Do you want to talk about this? Would you like to pray with someone? Leave me a comment or send me a message as I would be happy to do that for you.